Education Dispels Fear in the Post-acute Setting

By Merrilee Kittelstad

Fear is the feeling we experience when looking into the unknown. It’s the space we inhabit when we leave behind what we know and embark on a new journey; we are no longer in our old familiar situation and we are not yet settled into our new circumstances. Journeying down the path of change can be overwhelmingly fearful, but that fear can be dispelled with education.

Fear pervades the post-acute care arena. Watching the aging process, living through the dying process, running a business without adequate funding, watching budget cuts erode residents’ and patients’ quality of life—all of these things create an atmosphere where fear looms, and not only for patients and caregivers, but for the families too.

Caregivers can help relieve the fear their residents and patients experience by doing their job with compassion and consistency. But what about the families of the residents? Think of the unknown they face. How is life going to unfold without their loved one at home? How are they going to be cared for, what are the costs, and which facility is the best for their family member? Will they be able to afford care, and how will their family member be treated? Experience evaporates much of the fear. As families see the care their loved one receives, a sense of assurance will develop. But what can we as caregivers do to dispel that fear now? The answer—and the only answer—is education.

When a caregiver is hired, the new hire orientation process gives her or him the finer points of what is required and what is expected, and the fear is dissolved. In a post-acute care facility, new residents arrive, tour the facility, and meet other happy, well cared-for residents. As they experience comfortable surroundings, they become oriented to their new life well before they start to live it, thereby dispelling fear.

Families are no different; that little bit of education provided during the move-in process and getting to know how their loved one will be cared for and what they can expect at each stage goes a long way toward making their experience less fearful for the family and seamless and effortless for the facility staff. If the lack of education feeds fear, education dispels it. The education of your residents’ family is an investment that pays huge dividends.

For online tools that will help your prospective residents’ families understand and adjust to the future of having a loved one in a long-term care facility, CLICK HERE.